Report: 128 violations against Palestinian journalists

Funeral procession of Gazan video journalist and photographer Yaser Murtaja, killed by Israeli snipers despite wearing a vest marked ‘PRESS’, while covering the The Great March of Return on April 6, 2018

As many as 128 violations were committed against Palestinian journalists in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in June, a new report revealed.

The Committee to Support Palestinian Journalists revealed yesterday that it has documented 54 violations committed by Israeli occupation forces and 74 by Palestinian security services against Palestinian journalists in June.

According to the report, Israeli forces attacked 17 journalists in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank including directly assaulting media crews as they covered the Great March of Return. Journalists were left with a variety of injuries as a result.

The report also documented nine cases of arrests and detentions including the detention of a foreign journalist in Jerusalem, four cases of raiding journalists’ houses and three cases where journalists’ personal property – including phones and cameras – were confiscated.

The committee expressed concern about the increase in the campaign of arrests and prosecutions of Palestinian journalists after the Israeli Knesset approved a new law that prevents the filming of Israeli soldiers in an attempt to cover up their crimes against the Palestinian people.

The committee has also documented 74 violations; 53 in the West Bank and 21 in Gaza committed by Palestinian parties against journalists.

It also highlighted a rise in the number of attacks by Palestinian security forces in uniforms and civilian clothes against journalists including severe beating, confiscating their cameras and phones and using pepper spray against them as they covered a protest in Ramallah which called for the lifting of Palestinian Authority sanctions imposed on the Gaza Strip.